April 5, 2013, Stanley Mitchell Hut Trip

Did 6 days at the Stanley Mitchell Hut in B.C. from 3/31-4/5. We had amazing weather the first few days, and the stability was good. Even though it hadn't snowed in at least a week, we found great snow on north aspects--definitely what I would call powder after begin raised on Hood. The place was packed the first night, but then we had the whole valley to ourselves starting on Tuesday.

The approach is a slog at 14+ miles. I hear some people split it into two days, we did it in about 8 hours one day, which isn't too bad, time wise, but it was a lot of ground to cover. One guy brought along a home made pulk sled, which was definitely more trouble than it was worth. I would recommend just packing everything on your back. We had a group of 5, so we split the cost of portering in about 100lbs of food, which meant eating great and having plenty of energy for big tours every day. The hut itself isn't very expensive, so it was nice to be able to do.

The trip was mostly about skiing/riding, but we did a little bit of peak bagging as well: the President and Mt. Kerr. We took a ton of photos. I'll post a few of the shots here, but some are just too big, and there are many more than TAL allows. If you're interested, you can see a lot more here: http://splitboardingoregon.blogspot.com/2013/04/stanley-mitchell-hut-33113-4513.html